Doll Bones: A Mysterious Adventure

Not too long ago I got the chance to narrate the book Doll Bones by Holly Black. So as not to confuse those of you who are audiobook fans, let me explain that you will not find my read of this story at an online retailer nor in your local bookstore. This project was a noncommercial narration for the Library of Congress which makes it available as part of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). If you are interested in this book but are not a member of the NLS, the book can be found at the usual places in hardback, paperback, and kindle with illustrations by Eliza Wheeler. There is also a commercially available audiobook on CD. Now for a bit …

About The Author *

Her first book, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was published in 2002 by Simon & Schuster. Tithe was called “dark, edgy, beautifully written and compulsively readable” by Booklist, received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, and was included in the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults. Holly has since written two other books in the same universe, Valiant (2005), and the sequel to Tithe, Ironside (2007), which spent five weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Valiant was a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award for Young Readers and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.

Holly collaborated with her long-time friend, Caldecott award winning artist, Tony DiTerlizzi, to create the bestselling Spiderwick Chronicles. The first two books, The Field Guide and The Seeing Stone were released together in 2003 by Simon & Schuster, with the next three, Lucinda’s Secret (2003), The Ironwood Tree (2004) and The Wrath of Mulgarath (2004), following in rapid succession. The Wrath of Mulgarath climbed to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The five-book serial has been called “vintage Victorian fantasy” by the New York Post and Time Magazine reported that “the books wallow in their dusty Olde Worlde charm.”

The Spiderwick Chronicles were adapted into a film by Paramount Pictures in conjunction with Nickelodeon Films and released in February 2008.

Doll Bones is the tale of an adventure experienced/undertaken by three close friends. The book is written about and for readers in the Middle Grades but could probably be enjoyed by younger and even older readers, too. In relating her story, Ms. Black is able to reach into the world of Middle Graders and touch on some of the issues that present themselves to folks in her target audience in such a way as to make it relevant even to someone like myself who graduated from 8th grade quite some time ago. Anyway here’s more …

About The Book *

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.

But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?